


By Your Side

by daddyrorish



Category: Code Black (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-11 15:05:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5630968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daddyrorish/pseuds/daddyrorish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leanne is sick with the flu and has no one to take care of her... until Cole Guthrie pays her a visit. But, what Guthrie finds at Leanne's home proves that her struggles at work are only the tip of the iceberg. ((slightly modified version of a prompt from lilacmermaid25))</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was going to be posted a few days ago but the cruelest of ironies left ME with the flu. Not fun not fun, but, I'm better, and I finished chapter one! (that rhymed I'm sorry) Basically I'm planning on this being cute and sad and funny and scary and maybe not scary and probably not funny but definitely cute and sad. I don't know when I became this, but I am a sucker for some good Leanne/Cole fic. I hope you guys like it!

“Leanne!”

She heard her name shouted billions of times a day. Whether it was a scolding from Neal on center stage or a question from Jesse about which snack she wants from the vending machine, if she had a dime for every time her name was hollered at her in a day she could pay for a whole new ER. Leanne couldn’t quite place the source of who was calling her, and she didn’t quite care from her semi-quiet little nook in the locker room. She’d been desperate for a place to sit down for just a few minutes, out of the way and out of view from patients and her students. They were on their 23rd hour of Code Black, and she was on her 28th hour of little to no sleep. It was beginning to wear on her already worn out body; the past few days she’d been fighting the beginning of a cold, and during the last case when the room began to spin she decided it was a good time to duck away for a while, away from the noise and the blood and the patients and into a quiet oasis, even if it was just for a few minutes.

So why was this person calling to her and what the hell did they want?

Leanne could barely muster the energy to lift her head when she’d finally been spotted, but when she noticed Cole was the one tracking her down she couldn’t help feeling embarrassed. Weakness was not one of her favorite qualities in anyone, especially herself.

“Leanne, I have a patient who needs to go up to surgery now and your–“ Cole’s thought process was lost at the sight of his colleague. Her face was pale as the patients’ on center stage and her eyes looked as if they’d soon need to be propped open with toothpicks. “You okay?”

Leanne swept the stray hair that had escaped her ponytail off of her face, clearing her throat and sitting up straighter, which took more energy than it ever had before in her life.

“I’m fine.” She stood and the room spun, but she pushed through. She’d been on the floor for much longer than this at one time before, and once the ER calmed down no one would stand between her and her bed. She just had to get them through code black.

Cole didn’t quite believe her and as she followed him he noticed she was a bit wobbly on her feet at first. This was no time for Leanne’s stubborn behavior, he thought. If she was sick, she could get patients sick or not perform to her highest capabilities… though Leanne’s “not quite up to par” was still better than most doctors’ best. And, he reminded himself, there’s no fighting with Leanne. If she’s set her mind to working through whatever’s going on with her, he knows she will, and when she feels she’s no longer helpful, she’ll step off. As if he needed to find another attractive quality in her, he thought as he tried to change the subject in his mind. There were plenty of days he’d catch himself thinking about her, wondering where she was, what she was doing, or watching her work in the ER from afar.

He was still lost in his thoughts of her when her voice began to break through the chaos of center stage. She slipped her gloves on each shaking hand as the paramedics raddled off the run down on the latest patient, “GSW to the chest, last BP was 80 over 40, no lung sounds on the right.”

Her students swarmed around her and began their work while she checked breath sounds. As the rate of beeps on the heart monitor began to accelerate, she was about to announce tachycardia when Angus pushed her to the side unknowingly and she struggled to catch her footing. It could almost have gone unnoticed is she hadn’t pushed an entire tray of tools to the ground, and as they clattered to the floor she felt her face turn a fiery red. She whispered obscenities to herself as she went back to work and out of the corner of her eye could see Angus’s face frozen is horror.

“Doctor Leighton, what’s your evaluation,” she kept her head down, continuing to work on the patient. She wasn’t going to coddle him, and she would almost say he impressed her with his recovery time – what two months ago would have made him run off like a puppy with his tail between his legs, he now took in stride and continued his work professionally; she’d be sure to make a note of it later. His diagnosis fell in line with hers and together they began prepping the patient; the lung on the right side of his chest had collapsed and they were going to need to re-inflate it. As doctors and nurses swarmed around her, Leanne prepared to make an incision, the same type of incision she’s made hundreds of thousands of times, but the second the blood began to pool around the tip of her scalpel, her stomach lurched. She tried to keep going but she was trying so hard to push the nausea aside that her eyes began to water. Angus noticed this, and despite his better judgment, reached across to take the scalpel out of Leanne’s hand. Just as Leanne passed the scalpel off, she reached for a bedpan with the other hand and turned away from the patient as the contents of her stomach filled the pan, overflowing onto the floor.

“Woah Leanne, Leanne,” Jesse left the patient and rushed to her side. He’d noticed something was wrong with her all day, but they’d been so busy he hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to her. He grabbed another bedpan and handed it to her, taking the now full one from her and setting it aside. They waited until her stomach calmed, and then Jesse started to walk Leanne out of center stage.

“No Jesse, you stay, I’m fine. I’ll go to the lounge. You stay, they need you here.” Leanne shook his hand off her back gently – she wasn’t sure who it was who actually felt comfort from someone placing their hand on their back while they were getting sick, but she definitely had never been one of those people. She felt his eyes on her as she walked off shakily. If she wasn’t sure before, she was now. Leanne had caught the flu.


	2. Chapter 2

After a pit stop in the bathroom, to briefly finish what she’d started on center stage, Leanne ventured back to the locker room to grab the things she’d need for the night. One by one she placed her keys, her lunch she’d packed, and her latest medical journal she was reading into her purse, shutting the locker weakly as she swung her purse straps around her shoulder. She’d high tale it out of the hospital as quickly as she could before anyone could stop her and ask how she was feeling or if she was okay, or tell her to go home to get some rest and “drink plenty of fluids!” She wasn’t sure why the infestation of a virus in your body allowed people to speak with such condescension, but because it was all spoken with “good intentions” she couldn’t say much more than “thank you.”

She was rounding the corner to the exit – the door was in sight – when she caught Cole’s eye. He left the nurse he was speaking with and was suddenly by her side.

“Leanne – I was wondering, would you want me to stop by tonight? I can bring you soup, if -” Leanne interrupted him before he could continue.

“That’s really unnecessary, Doctor Guthrie, I’m sure I’ll be fine.” She tried to step around him, but he stepped with her.

“It’s no big deal, I can be over right after my shift. No offense, Leanne, but you don’t look great. You could use someone looking after you.” He smiled his cocky grin, and she couldn’t help the smile that crept onto her lips: he could drive her insane with his confidence, but, her defenses were down, and right now she almost found it appealing.

She was very close to saying yes when another wave of nausea hit – she didn’t want anyone seeing her like this. She swallowed the feeling and batted him away with her hand.

“No, no thank you,” she walked away as briskly as she could without running, “have a nice night, Doctor Guthrie,” she called over her shoulder and soon, she was out the door and out of sight.

Jesse had watched the whole scene from afar and couldn’t help laughing, walking up to Cole and patting him on the shoulder.

“You tried, no one can ever say otherwise.” Jesse smirked before starting to make his way back to center stage. It wasn’t until Cole spoke again that Jesse realized he’d followed him.

“You’re her best friend, don’t you think someone should be with her?” Cole couldn’t believe he was the only one who was concerned about Leanne.

“Leanne’s a big girl, she can take care of herself.” Jesse thought back to The Accident, and how much she resisted any sort of care, even in the months she was bedridden. She had collapsed inward; it was a few weeks before he really heard her voice again. He knew the flu was nothing compared to what had happened to her then, but he also knew that she’d definitely be feeling the emptiness of her house, sitting in bed with nothing to distract her from the silence and the vacant space beside her. He would leave, himself, if he could. He’d be beside her faster than she could notice she was alone, but he couldn’t leave the hospital, not in the middle of his shift and not in the middle of a code black sans Doctor Rorish – it wouldn’t be fair to the students or the patients. Perhaps sending Cole would be a good idea. “On second thought…”

Jesse took out a post-it pad from his pocket and wrote Leanne’s address in his chicken scratch handwriting. Leanne always made fun of him for it, not that hers was any better. Leanne would kill him for this, but Mama was used to Daddy’s wrath at this point. Besides, even Daddy needs to be taken care of sometimes.

“Here’s Leanne’s address. Park on the right side of the driveway, because she may want to walk out on you while you’re there and she parks her car on the left side of the garage, you don’t want your car to be in her way.” Cole could tell Jesse was speaking from experience. He took the light pink post it from the nurse and looked at it for a moment, almost unable to believe how easy it had been to get her address from him. Jesse stepped closer and his tone was hushed as he continued, “I do want to warn you before you get there, that house is not what you would expect from Leanne. She only lost them three years ago; it’s been hard. She’s… struggled. Don’t talk about it, not while she’s sick. Ignore as much as you can.” Jesse patted him on the back before turning back to center stage and calling over his shoulder – “take good care of her, don’t let her hurt you too badly.” And then he was gone.

Cole couldn’t deny that what Jesse had said had made him somewhat nervous. He didn’t know Leanne very well, he had no clue what was waiting for him at that house, and to be honest, it frightened him a bit. He’d been haunted by visions of his mother when he’d found her, he couldn’t imagine that loss times three. Leanne was a sound person though, he reminded himself, whatever it is, it can’t be too bad.

Cole quickly gathered his things from his office and was soon plugging her address into his GPS. She may be mad at first, but she’d be happy to see him… he hoped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave me feedback! Let me know what you think so far and if you're interested in another chapter! This story should be fun, I'm excited to see where it goes from here :)


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